1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to application file management within data processing systems and in particular to application- and user-specific file mapping within data processing systems or networks. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to user-based dynamic file mapping allowing sharing of single-user applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Applications may be stored on network servers and run from workstations connected to the network. Different users authorized access to the network may run the application remotely from different workstations connected to the network. In the best cases, however, significant duplication of files is typically required. In some cases, a complete copy of the application for each user must be stored on the server.
Currently, the only mechanisms available for transparently remapping application files are machine-specific. Unix's symbolic links, for example, allow a dummy filename to be mapped to a secondary location, but only in a machine-specific fashion. PC RIPL (Remote Boot) FileIndirectionTables are also machine-specific and are loaded at boot time. Distributed File System (DFS) implements "referrals," which provide static directory mapping, which is constant across all machines and users.
Machine-specific file remappings typically cannot handle the case of configuration files. Single user applications--i.e. applications which are not designed for concurrent use by multiple users--include configuration files containing user preferences, cache or data files storage locations, etc. Such configuration files are user specific and typically should be stored in different, access-restricted directories.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a mechanism for dynamically remapping files associated with single user applications in a machine-independent fashion.